Who are these booksellers?

Four of the missing people work for Hong Kong publisher Mighty Current, and one works for Mighty Current's Causeway Bay Bookstore.

Mighty Current produces books that are critical of mainland China's leadership, and several of their titles contain purported exposés of political scandals. The books are banned in China, but reports say they have been growing popular with mainland Chinese tourists visiting Hong Kong.

The latest missing person, Lee Bo, is the chief editor at Mighty Current and a British citizen, went missing last week. In October last year, the other four went missing. They are Gui Minhai, Mighty Current's co-owner; Lui Bo its general manager; and Cheung Jiping, its business manager. Lam Wing-Kei works for Causeway Bay Bookstore.

British embassy confirms that one of missing Hong Kong booksellers is British citizen; asks HK, China to ascertain welfare, whereabouts

How does Hong Kong view the incidents?

Since the British handed Hong Kong back to mainland China in 1997, the former colony has been governed by the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ rule. This rule grants a higher level of civil rights and liberties to Hong Kong residents than those on the mainland, and also forbids the Chinese police from operating there.

In comparison with Communist China, Hong Kong has over the years enjoyed far greater freedom of the press and speech. However, the mysterious disappearances of Mighty Current's five employees have raised concern that the Chinese government is moving to tighten its grip on Hong Kong and clamp down on dissent.

In mainland China, it is not uncommon for company executives and dissidents to vanish while they're detained for lengthy periods by the authorities to "aid investigations", but the Hong Kong disappearances are new, and have sent shockwaves through the country's publishing industry, as well as raised alarm bells on impending political suppression.

What has the reaction been like from Hong Kongers?

Hong Kong's Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying called a press conference on Monday, where he said the mainland government did not have the authority to make arrests in Hong Kong. He said: "Only legal enforcement agencies in Hong Kong have the legal authority to enforce laws in Hong Kong. No other law enforcement agencies outside of Hong Kong have such an authority."

He also appealed for anyone with information on the missing persons to come forward to Hong Kong authorities.

After Lee's disappearance came to light last week when his wife filed a police report, a few dozen protestors marched to Beijing's Liaison Office in Hong Kong over the weekend to demand information.

Protesters hold photos of missing booksellers during a protest outside the Liaison of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong.

Image: Vincent Yu/Associated Press

The following day, 19-year-old Hong Kong activist, Agnes Chow, a prominent member of student protest group Scholarism, released a five-minute video on Facebook criticising the Chinese government. In the video titled "An urgent cry from Hong Kong", Chow details how Hong Kong's political affairs have changed over the years and asks netizens to spread her message to the world.

In less than 24 hours, the video went viral, being viewed more than 860,000 times and receiving over 12,000 shares.

身 在 日 本 膽 粗 粗 錄 左 條 英 文 片 ， 沒 咩 準 備 、 背 稿 ， 抱 歉 。 我 只 係 覺 得 今 次 ， 國 際 關 注 係 好 重 要 。"Hong Kong is not Hong Kong anymore, it is NAMED as Hong Kong only."An Urgent Cry from Hong KongI am Agnes Chow, a member of Scholarism, a student activists organization from Hong Kong. I have an important message that I hope to spread to the world which is related to a bookseller who suddenly disappeared and had been abducted to Mainland.A Hong Kong bookseller named Lee Bo who sold books criticizing the Communist Party of China and banned political books suddenly went missing weeks after four of his associates disappeared strangely. The Causeway Bay Bookstore, the bookstore established by Lee in 1994, is popular among mainland tourists as they can buy political books which are banned in their hometown.On 30th December 2015, Lee was supposed to collect books from a warehouse at around 5:30pm. However, he was out of contact and could not be found even his wife arrived the warehouse, looking for him at 8:00pm. About 10:00, his wife received a call from her husband from Shenzhen. Lee used Mandarin unusually rather than Cantonese, and told his wife that he had temporarily gone back to cooperate with the investigation, ‘They want me to assist the investigation, if I cooperate, it may be alright." Lee called his wife again soon to notice her that "you may already know what's going on" and "don't make the news public”.With the protection of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Hongkongers are able to obtain personal safety and basic human rights under rule of law. Even some of the Hongkongers acted as dissents to voice out their disagreement towards the Communist Party of China, they would not face penalties. Unlike the mainland China, Hong Kong did not adopt authoritarian governance. Citizens who sell politically sensitive books were not supposed to be suppressed by any threats of ‘disappearance’ and imprisonment with the existence of freedom of press and speech. In the past, we were safe because we lived in Hong Kong instead of the mainland China. However, the circumstances have changed with the abduction which was suspected to be done by the police in China towards this bookseller who kept being low profile before. Lee’s wife has reported her husband’s missing to the Hong Kong Police Force but still no one could contact Lee since 4 days before. With no departure record of Lee, and his Home Return Permit Card is left at his home in Hong Kong, it can be speculated that the police from the mainland organized cross-border arrest to threaten people in Hong Kong. If the above speculation is true, it indicates the erosion of "one country, two system" in the Basic Law of Hong Kong.The reason for me to film this video is to raise the global awareness of this serious issue happened in Hong Kong, and I hope that more and more foreign medias can keep their attention and coverage on this white terror incident. We feel that Hong Kong is not Hong Kong anymore, it is NAMED as Hong Kong only. The most worrying thing finally happened. This incident evoke me the famous statement written by Pastor Martin in the 1950s.“First they came for the activists, and I did not speak out. Because I was not an activist. Then they came for the journalists, and I did not speak out. Because I was not a journalist. Then they came for the bookseller, and I did not speak out. Because I was not a bookseller. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.”I hope everyone in the world who believes in universal values of freedom and human rights could stand up and speak for this incident to stop the political suppression.Even I am also afraid of my personal safety after this incident happened, I still believe we should continuously fight for freedom from fear because it is an important core value that we should uphold . Let us stand up to show our discontent on this abduction and stop the further suppression to political dissents in Hong Kong.

A video from what appears to be the Mexico division of international hacktivist group, Anonymous, has been circulated. In the video, the masked figure vows to attack Chinese police and government websites in retaliation for the missing booksellers.

But in the latest twist, on late Monday Hong Kong police said the wife of the latest missing person, Lee, withdrew her missing person's report, because she said she had managed to get in touch with him. She told local media that he had called her from a number that indicated he was in Shenzhen, the mainland Chinese city next to Hong Kong.

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